The dark teas from Hunan are rich in variety. I reviewed a few already, including fuzhuan cha and tian Jian dark tea.
According to this article, dark Tea in Hunan commonly use leaves from C. sinensis var. sinensis with one bud and three or four leaves. This is better than those produced in some other dark Tea producing provinces such as Hubei and Sichuan which have lower tea picking standard.
Huajuan Tea (花卷茶) translates as ‘Patterned Roll Tea’, and it is also known as Qianliang. Qian is thousand and Liang is apparently a Chinese unit for weight, and it is more or less equal to 2 kg for 10 Liang. Thus, 1000 Liang makes about 50 kg, and this is how heavy this Tea is. They are like a big bulky piece of wood, and they are pretty much cut into discs with woodcutter like machines before being packaged individually.
This Tea was a sample, and probably about 0.02% of the whole log just to put things into context. The dry leaves did not have a strong smell, but the soaked leaves had a fruity and woody aroma with floral under notes. It had a medium body and sour-sweet taste. It started smooth but exploded in the mouth and ended sour almost acidic. It was different from my previous experience with Anhua Dark tea. I thought the taste may get better over the years as it is only two years old at the moment. I will keep experimenting with dark teas. They are actually interesting.
Tea profile:
Type: Dark
Origin: Anhua, Hunan Harvest time: 2017
Leaf colour: Tones of dark brown with some visible stems Liquor colour: Deep amber
Tea Aroma: Woody and fruity
Tea Taste: Medium bodied, starts slightly sweet with a citric finish
Steeping: Place about 6 g of this tea in a gaiwan or teapot and add hot water around 100°C. After rinsing the leaves, you can steep for 10 seconds and add 10 second to each consecutive steeping. You can multi-steep this tea multiple times.
Shelf life: Can be aged
Comments